Turning Spam Into Entertainment

Sites like Innocent Spam and Spamusement take spam, the bane of our e-mail inboxes, and turn it into something we can all laugh at.

I can think of far more entertaining things to do with my time than cleaning the spam out of my inbox. Thankfully I don't get a ton of spam, but I know people who get dozens, if not hundreds, of spam e-mails per day. While the scourge of spam doesn't seem to be going away anytime, some folks have come up with at least a method to make it more entertaining. Sites like Innocent Spam and Spamusement take the bane of our inboxes and turn them into something we can all laugh at.

Spam subject lines tend to be random at best and suggestive at worst, but if you take them out of context, they can be quite funny. Innocent Spam is the brainchild of artist and photographer Janet Nelson, who takes subject lines from real spam items and turns them into cartoons and drawings that look as though a child drew them. Subject lines like "There will be no more games in the bedroom," which is probably a subject line hiding a link to a shady offshore pharmacy are turned into reindeer playing baseball on a bed with an angry Santa shouting at them.

Nelson's comics are drawn using subject lines from actual spam e-mail that's landed in her inbox. Nelson has dozens of innocent spam images, and invites you to think about how funny spam e-mail would be if all of it were innocent. You're free to contact the artist if you're looking to purchase a print.

Spamusement on the other hand is more of a Webcomic. Artist Steven Frank bases each comic on real spam subject lines, although the site hasn't been updated with new comics in a long time. Even so, there's plenty of back-comics to sift through. Spamusement isn't nearly as innocent as Innocent Spam, but the comics are just as funny. Spamusement has been running since 2004, turning subject lines like "she can't possibly be enjoying this" into what looks like an incredibly boring game of "Satiated, Satiated Hippos."

If you want to get in on the action and contribute your own interpretations of spam subject lines, Spamusement has forums where users supply guest comics that are often featured on the front page. Spamusement has been running a bit longer than Innocent Spam, and is probably for an older audience.

Either way, Innocent Spam and Spamusement both make spam funny. Next time you find yourself getting angry because you have tons of spam to clean out of your inbox, remember to set up some mail filters, keep your e-mail address as private as possible, and check out Innocent Spam and Spamusement for a little relief.